


A Quiet Afternoon

by depizan



Series: Hands of Chance [4]
Category: Star Wars Legends: The Old Republic
Genre: Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-16
Updated: 2017-05-16
Packaged: 2018-11-01 09:22:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 785
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10918941
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/depizan/pseuds/depizan
Summary: A day or two after his rescue from the Empire, Kyrian and Jezari visit a local marketplace on the planet where they're staying while he recovers.Minor content note: mention of (healing) hand injury.





	A Quiet Afternoon

The open-air market was aimed at tourists rather than locals, judging from the abundance of knickknacks and casual shirts bearing the likeness of the nearby mountain range, or of skiers or rock climbers. But it was outside, and it was the kind of place where no one paid much attention to the people around them.

Large trees shaded the marketplace, and tempting aromas wafted from the food carts and the restaurants that faced the square. The crowd was the usual variety of species one found in neutral space, and the general murmur held an assortment of languages and accents.

Kyrian tried not to flinch whenever he caught a few words of Imperial-accented Basic. Logically, there was no reason to be concerned; the Empire would hardly broadcast that it had misplaced a traitor, and nothing of the city he’d seen so far suggested it was likely to have an Imperial Intelligence presence. Neutral worlds tended to frown on that, and anything else that might interfere with _remaining_ neutral.

Then again, his judgement had proven dubious at best. Retreating back to the hotel room was probably the logical reaction.

And the first step toward spending the rest of his life hiding on some planet as far from the Empire as it was possible to get without leaving the galaxy.

He sighed. _I’m a coward._

Jezari looked up from the tiny glass sculptures she’d been admiring. “Is your hand bothering you?” She reached into her pocket. “I brought...”

He shook his head. “It’s all right.”

“Climbing accident?” The shopkeeper asked.

“Yes.” It was the assumption everyone who’d commented on the sling made, and a far simpler - and more pleasant - story than the truth.

The shopkeeper nodded sympathetically. “You’ll be fine. The doctors here are great. Lots of practice!”

“Yes...”

They moved on before the shopkeeper could offer any more cheery commentary.

“You okay?” Jezari asked once they were out of earshot.

Kyrian shrugged. The shopkeeper’s assessment wasn’t entirely wrong, just missing a few vital details. Starting with the fact that the doctor who’d treated him hadn’t exactly been working out of the local medcenter.

She studied him. “This isn’t really your kind of thing, is it.”

“It isn’t that. I’m not very good company at present. I’m sorry.”

She gave his arm a squeeze. “I’m supposed to be good company for _you_. If there’s something you want to do, tell me. Okay?”

“This is fine.” True, but not convincing. He could see that in her face. “It’s almost lunch time,” he added, trying to put more enthusiasm into the words. “Perhaps...?”

“We could go back to the hotel,” Jezari said, “but they usually have really good food stands in places like this.” That food from the market stalls was designed to be eaten while walking, and would be far easier to eat one-handed than whatever the hotel was serving for lunch, remained unspoken.

“All right.” He looked around at the scattered food stands. “You’re the expert: what shall we have?”

She brightened. “I know just the thing.”

The thing in question proved to be some sort of savory pastry. Jezari bought two from the Zabrak woman running the food cart, and two bottles of a fizzy fruit drink.

Kyrian tried not to think about how much his rescue had cost her and Savler – was _still_ costing them. He had no idea how he’d ever repay them. _I can’t think about that right now._ He was having to tell himself that about far too many things.

Firmly dismissing all thoughts of the future, he followed Jezari to a bench under one of the trees at the edge of the market square.

She opened the bottles and folded back the heavy paper the pastries were wrapped in. “I first tried these on some nowhere planet we were running…uh…” She glanced around at the passing shoppers. “… _supplies_ to. They are _so_ good.” She handed him one and bit into the other. “Mmm.”

He watched her blissfully eating for a moment, then tried his pastry. The filling proved to be a mixture of meat and vegetables, spiced hot enough that he was glad she’d thought to buy drinks, but not unpleasantly so.

They ate in comfortable silence. Managing food and drink one-handed, even sitting on a bench, required most of Kyrian’s attention. And the pastries were good enough they deserved a certain amount of focus, anyway.

Kyrian leaned back against the trunk of the tree. He could almost imagine a future that involved days like this, only without his arm in a sling or his hand aching dully. No, his future _would_ involve days like this. For all his concerns and uncertainty, there were things to look forward to as well.


End file.
